Unusual store opening in Ireland became big success

The opening of the fourth store in Ireland was not a standard opening. A missing sprinkler system nearly canceled the opening of the store in Portlaoise, but thanks to a great team effort, it became a successful pop-up market instead.

The team in Ireland had to think fast and find new solutions just a few days before the fourth JYSK store was supposed to open the doors to customers in the town of Portlaoise.

A visit from the fire inspector nearly canceled the opening just a few days before the store was finally ready to open.

“The store in Portlaoise was actually supposed to be the first store to open in Ireland, but it has been delayed several times. Then on 8 August, we were finally ready to open. At this time we had done a big job with marketing materials, we had invited a lot of media to the opening and printed 50,000 campaign papers with the opening date,” says Roni Tuominen, Head of Retail in JYSK Ireland.

Outside to meet the customers

But then a fire inspector stopped by the store and stated that a sprinkler system needed to be installed, so the store could not be ready for the opening as planned.

“I sat down with my Sales and Marketing Manager Jenny and Retail Operational Manager Karen and said: Guys, we need to do something. If we can’t let the customers in, we need to go outside to meet them,” says Roni.

 "If we can’t let the customers in, we need to go outside to meet them."
- Roni Tuominen | Head of Retail, JYSK Ireland.

In a very short time they were able to arrange a “pop-up market” outside the store with sunshades, garden furniture, and lots of the bestselling articles for the customers to buy. And with close to 1,000 buying customers, it turned out to be a big success.

“Even though we didn’t open the store as we had planned, it was still a great success thanks to the great effort and adaptability from the team. Also the weather was luckily not typically Irish weather with lots of rain but a sunny day, so of course that was the icing on the cake,” says Roni. 

After installing the sprinkler system, the customers are now invited inside the real store when they stop by to shop at the new JYSK in Portlaoise.